Exploration: A Cautionary Tale
by insertcleverandwittytitlehere
Summary: Lily Luna Potter loved to explore. Probably a bit too much for her own good.


**A/N:** This is Beater 2 of the Chudley Cannons, checking in for Round 12 of Season 4 of the QLFC.

 **Prompts:** 1\. (word) control and 14. (creature) Acromantula; I also picked the prompt "tragic story about next gen characters."

 **Word count (before A/N):** 1,433 words.

 **J.K. owns Harry Potter. I am not J.K. I just dabble. Enjoy!**

* * *

When Hagrid said goodbye to Lily Potter, he had cradled her son in his arms and promised, in a thick, heavy voice, that nothing like this would ever happen again, so long as he was around to protect Harry. Hagrid meant it from the bottom of his giant heart, and after he had promised the small, infant child this, the boy fell asleep in Hagrid's warm embrace.

* * *

Lily Luna Potter loved to explore. She loved to explore high places and low places and all places in between. Far places weren't daunting and near places weren't boring. Everything was worth exploring to Lily Luna.

Albus Severus Potter liked to explore. He liked to lift Lily Luna high above his head and help Lily Luna squeeze into tiny holes too small for him. But he also liked to have quiet days where he could sit and contemplate things, like what Mummy and Daddy did after they tucked him in bed or where the sun actually came from and did it like to sleep with a light on too? Albus Severus liked to explore, but he liked staying still, too.

James Sirius didn't care much for exploring. Exploring was for baby sisters who didn't understand that big boys and girls went on adventures. They didn't _explore_ ; they found, battled, and conquered. James Sirius wasn't really interested in exploration with his brother and sister, so he stuck to his mum's side one May morning when the whole family went to visit Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

On that bright May day, a lot of people hustled and bustled around the three Potter children, shaking hands with their dad and patting them each squarely on the tops of their heads. James would shake his hair out each time a silly stranger did this, while Albus scrunched up his face and wondered what on earth this attention could mean.

It was Lily Luna who smiled at these strangers, because she knew it wouldn't be long till she could enact her magnificent idea to explore Hogwarts. She had devised the most ingenious plan during the train ride. She would start exploring on the bottom floor and work her way up to the tippy, tippy top. Then she would explore her way right back down, using the elusive changing staircases Daddy had told her about.

Yes. It was the most extraordinary exploration plan she had ever thought of and it would be a fantastic journey.

Lily Luna tugged on Albus's sleeve, hoping he would want to escape the sea gushing faces with her. When he asked her what she wanted, she pointed toward a break in the crowd, where a single, solitary door awaited them. This wasn't be the first time Lily Luna found a single, solitary door waiting at the end of a long corridor or hallway, and Albus knew it wouldn't be the last. He also knew exactly what she wanted and decided he wanted to go too.

Albus tugged on James's sleeve next, hoping he would come too. Ever since he turned ten, James thought he was much older and wiser than Albus or Lily Luna. Albus hated it. He hoped James would explore with them, like old times, instead of insisting they find an adventure to find, battle, and conquer, (three words Albus had grown to loathe). But, instead, James shook his head and positioned himself next to Mummy, content with shaking his head each time another person patted it.

Lily Luna dodged the crowd left and right with Albus on her tail. Soon, they were standing beside the single, solitary door. Lily Luna looked at Albus, and Albus nodded his head in approval. She turned the big, brass knob and pushed. The door opened with a creak, but before anyone had time to look at the door and spot the two, Lily Luna and Albus had slipped through the tiny crack she had made.

"Oh bother," Lily Luna said. Somehow, she and Albus had ended up outside. This was not what she had planned at all, but she still didn't want to go back to that room filled with all those people. Albus, instead, started walking away from the castle, his feet clomping down on the wet grass. It was damp outside, the sun was peaking in through wispy clouds, and up ahead, a great wall of trees stood like a line of soldiers at attention. Lily Luna saw her brother's destination and soon formulated an even better plan of exploration. They would explore the forest.

Once hidden beneath the canopy of the trees, Lily Luna and Albus started running. The forest really was the best place to explore. There were trees with knots and dips and nooks and crannies, where all kinds of birds could hide. There were tiny hills of dirt where ants marched one by one and two by two. Winding brooks and rushing creeks cut through the trees like slithering snakes.

And, Lily Luna hoped, a unicorn might be grazing today.

But soon, the trees became thicker, closing in together, knitting their branches in twisting and twirling knots. Albus slowed down first—a prickle ran down the base of his neck, telling him that something was definitely wrong. He stopped dead in his tracks. Somehow he had paused in the last ray of sunlight as it shot through the trees like an arrow racing towards its target. Ahead, it was only grim darkness, faded grey light. Lily Luna had not stopped though. Lily Luna kept running.

Over her shoulder, she called him a scaredy cat. Albus, usually quick to prove he was not a scaredy cat, let the comment go. Nothing could make him move forward; nothing in all the world could make him move an inch. After all, Albus Severus liked exploring, but he also preferred the quiet life and pondered quite a bit.

In that moment, he was content pausing, waiting, until that prickle made sense to him.

Lily Luna, however, loved exploring. Nothing was scary. There wasn't any danger. Her Daddy told her so. He said she was safe, and on that very day, everyone was celebrating just that—being safe. The forest may have grown darker, but Lily Luna was safe.

Until she wasn't.

Lily Luna tripped over a risen tree root, and she stumbled to the ground. Her hands caught her fall, but she still scraped them on the earthen floor. She hated cuts and bruises and scrapes. They were the only downfall to exploring.

Slowly, she stood up, brushing dirt from her shirt and her trousers. She used the bottom lip of her shirt to wipe the blood from her newly cut hands, then she pulled little bits of twig and rock out of the wounds, wincing each time she did so, until her palms were cleaned as best she could in the forest.

Lily Luna decided she should go back to Albus now, but when she turned, she realized he wasn't anywhere in sight. In fact, she wasn't even sure exactly which direction he could be in. Slowly, she turned and turned, trying to determine which would be her best path back to her brother and back to the castle with all its still unexplored treasures. She stood in the middle of a clearing, circling and circling until _crunch._

Lily Luna turned toward the noise, hoping Albus had found her.

But it wasn't Albus. It was a rather large spider.

No. It wasn't a rather large spider. It was an enormous and alarming spider, bigger than Lily Luna's bed at home. Bigger than her Daddy's car, even!

Slowly, it approached her, its ginormous eyes, like big, black plates, never blinking. Not once. A prickle started to form at the back of Lily Luna's neck, the kind of prickle that says this is not good. It was the first time she'd ever felt this kind of prickle, and for a moment, Lily Luna wondered if she really should be exploring in the forest at all.

 _Crunch, crunch, crunch._ It came closer.

 _Crunch, crunch…_

 _Crunch._

* * *

When Hagrid said goodbye to Lily Potter, he had cradled her son in his arms and promised, in a thick, heavy voice, that nothing like this would ever happen again.

When Hagrid said goodbye to Lily Luna Potter, he placed a large, heavy hand on her father's shoulder and said, in a thick but empty voice, he supposed some things, no matter how hard he tried, just weren't in his control. And after Hagrid had finished saying this, he wept and wept, knowing that he hadn't kept his promise.


End file.
